Mourner

A mourner is someone who is attending a funeral or who is otherwise recognized as in a period of grief and mourning prescribed either by religious law or by popular custom.

[1] Many cultures expect mourners to curtail certain activities, usually those considered frivolous or that are accompanied by expressions of joy.

Historically, some cultures have employed professional mourners to make a public showing of grief to honor the deceased (particularly those in the Near East).

[2] Traced back to the year 1877, it has been recorded that there is a business entailed with hiring or renting mourners for a funeral.

[3] It is even recorded that in China mourners are hired to belly-dance and put on a theatrical spectacle at the funeral.

Mourning angels at the tomb of Pedro I of Portugal (died 1367), Alcobaça Monastery . Mourning figures or "weepers" (French pleurants ) have been conventional elements of tomb architecture since the Gothic period .